Greetings everyone, hope the holidays are going well for you guys.

I have an 07 SP 500 EFI that I have yet again suffered melting plastic issues with. I started talking to Polaris and my local dealer here in Concord NC on Dec 3rd. All I have gotten is the royal run around from both. I had the problem under warranty and they replaced the plastics but never solved the underlying problem, hence now that I am out of warranty it has popped up again. I can't even get Polaris to talk to me without the dealer submitted pics, which they held onto for over a week for no apparent reason starting on the 4th. They don't seem to care about me because I will not buy the extended warranty they offer. So bottom line, I am going to give the High Point dealer a shot next week, but have hit the point where I am ready to sell her, and buy something from another manufacturer who might stand by their product and have at least a little customer service.....

I love my Polaris, but I have a hard time keeping something that keeps breaking that no one will help me with at the dealer, or corporate level. So I am wondering what I should expect to get out of it in trade or selling it myself. Fairly good condition, 71hrs with 588miles. Winch, heavy duty springs, little stuff like that. And of course a small amount of melted plastic at this point, not visible without pulling the side cover.

Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post, and Happy New Year!

Thomas

 

where is the melted plastic, i have the same quad...

 

I have had the same problem with the Polaris dealers. If you don't have a service manual on your atv, and want to ask a simple question about it, like recommended oil or plug gap, they look at you like they are going clear out of their way to answer your question. I occationaly get parts from them but have not bought any new or used atv's from them. I always felt that I am treated that way because I havn't bought any Polaris's from them, but I'm still a customer.<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: shorse

where is the melted plastic, i have the same quad...</end quote></div>

 

The 500 didn't have any melting plastic issues I was aware of! Where is the problem and if you can't see it why would they warrant it? What other problems have you had?
A 2007 with the miles and hrs. of yours should retail around $1000 less than new, and trade will be $1500-$2000 less.

I know you feel you shouldn't have to do any thing to a new machine but we all do upgrades to our atv's. Why not put a piece of heat resistance tape on the back of the affected area?

 

My 500 had the same melting problem. There is a new updated heatshield but I haven't got it yet. My HSP pipe is farther away from the plastic and I haven't had a problem since I got it on

 

Thanks for the response guys.

shorse - the plastic is on the right side, where the side panel attaches to the main body panel. It is between two heat shields on the exhaust pipe, basically right where the exhaust pipe passes the very front of the rear cab.

RickCJ7 - It is the second time I have had the plastic melt. The first time it melted the front 5 inches of the rear cab plastic, right side, and melted the attachment point of the side cover and the grommet it attaches to. At the moment it has only melted the rubber grommet and a small amount of the rear cab plastic, as well as the nub from the side panel. You cannot see it with the panel in place, even though it is not properly attached at the moment, after a few more hours it will be visible. After the first time this happened, I put my own layer of heat tape over the Polaris stock set, and also wrapped the entire exhaust pipe in header wrap at the suggestion of my FL dealer and it saved it a little longer then the first time, but same end result.

Scrammy - Thanks for the tip on the HSP. I will have to look into it depending on the outcome of the next week or so.

I will try to post some pictures first thing tomorrow.

 

I have an 2007 500 and there is no sign of any plastic melting!
I can slide my hand between the pipe and plastic and have no problem. Could your pipe be tightened to close to the plastic? could you loosen it and push it over and tighten? Funny how some melt and others don't.

 

I didn't think it was too funny [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] But warrenty covered it without a problem

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: SCRAMMYTODD

I didn't think it was too funny [img][/img] But warrenty covered it without a problem</end quote></div>


I've now heard of 2 500's with melted plastic out of how many 500's sold. There must be some reason that this happened to a few!
Can or could you fit your hand between the plastic and exhaust? You can loosen the pipe and push it over some and retighten to get more clearance.
Thats the only reason for melted plastic.

 

The thing is, I know that I am no longer in warranty. I have no issues with that. The issue I have is that it failed under warranty and they only patched the problem. They never truly resolved it.

Interesting how you say there is enough room to move your hand between the plastic and pipe. I just went and took pictures, and as with the first rear cab - it is now resting on the pipe basically. In a few of the pic's you can see the plastic basically sitting on it.

www.flickr.com/photos/ki4bar2 - the top 6 are of the current and first set of plastics.

I can't find a good pic of the exhaust pipe in the handy service manual so I am going to browse around and just see if the shape of the pipe and location are similar to what others have.